Bishop Martin Seeley’s Easter message

Easter is about love. It is about God’s love. and how this love is greater than death, greater than all the evil and wrong in the world.

We see God’s love in Jesus on Good Friday, at his crucifixion. We see it as he gives himself up to die knowing that somehow his death will make the world a better place.

We see it as he prays for the soldiers who are nailing him to the cross, praying that they be forgiven.

We see it as he hangs from the cross and tells his mother and his closest follower that they are family now and must take care of one another.

We see it as he reaches out to the thief crucified next to him.

God’s love, even at this most dreadful moment, is selfless, thinking only of others, it is about forgiveness, generosity, kindness, compassion and gentleness.

And then the extraordinary thing, after his horrifying death, Jesus is alive again, and the love he showed leading up to his death is the love he shows in his new life.

He is gentle and kind to his followers, startled and disorientated to find him alive. He gently helps them come to terms with this new reality of his risen life.

He does not come back with reprisals or judgement on those who had executed him.

Instead he shows the same love, the gentleness, compassion and kindness, the generosity and forgiveness, that he had shown before his death.

Which is the love that we see small ways and big ways, at times of celebration and times of tragedy.

It is the love poured out after the recent Westminster attack, for the families and friends of the victims, for the communities affected, at the funeral of PC Keith Palmer’s funeral.

It is the same love poured out to the Coptic Christian victims of the terrorist bombs on Palm Sunday in Egypt. Love from within the Christian community and from Egyptian Muslims and from many others across the world.

This is us, human beings, sharing and showing God’s love, which was revealed by Jesus’ resurrection as indestructible and forever, overcoming evil and suffering.

We show and share God’s love, Jesus’ resurrection love, when we choose in our own lives the same loving way of kindness, gentleness, compassion, generosity and forgiveness.